26 April 2017

Five ways churches can encourage creatives

The Church has often struggled to make space for creatives to explore and express faith in ways that truly reflect the experience of God. Here we've put together some of our top tips for finding ways to get creatives more involved in church life…

Host an art exhibition Find a space within your church's social or community life to host an art exhibition. Get to know the creatives in your congregations and ask to display their work, or explore local artists to see who might be willing to show their work in your church building.Encourage creatives to draw or paint a response to the sermonThis could be any size from a six-foot canvas to an A6 postcard, but give the creatives in your congregation a chance to respond visually to what they're hearing in church. If possible, give them a chance to explain what they've drawn and why to the rest of the church family, and encourage more people to get involved.

Ask creatives to lead servicesFind those creatives in your church community who could lead services from their own perspective. Allow them space suggest alternative ways of running a service – maybe changing the layout of the space and spending time in worship in the round rather than in rows. Maybe you have a poet in your community who could write and lead the prayers using their special way with words.

Use pictures and videos during talksWe're all very used to a bit of power point these days, but making sure that sermon illustrations include visually stimulating content is a great way to help those who process through vision engage more deeply with the sermon.

Connect with Christian Unions at local art colleges or universitiesFind out what your local young artists are getting up to, and how young Christian artists can be encouraged and supported both in their faith and in their talents. Ask them to come along, maybe to speak with your young people or to the whole church, sharing about the creative gifts God has given them and how they can use them for His glory.

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